This Photographer Photographs Farm Animal Like No One Else

Photographer Rob MacInnis gathers barnyard animals that we selected for consumption and production, and turns them into majestic portrait subjects.

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Everything started when Rob came back from a long journey through South America. Taking photos in places that suffered from extreme poverty made him rethink photography’s role in his life and society: “I had a tough time dealing with my relationship to photography after this trip,” Rob told Bored Panda. “I felt it irresponsible to ignore the exploitative aspects of photography, especially when making artwork in such a privileged position. I found that photographing animals enabled me to critique both myself and the photographic field.”

MacInnis said that working with animals wasn’t very different from working with people. “You’re invading their space so need to set some boundaries and develop trust,” he said. “At times this is easy and other times impossible.”

“I met a great deal of patient, helpful and trusting farmers and we did what we could with what we had. What I did have was a decent amount of time which was quite necessary. Sometimes just to get the right head shot I would have to wait for an hour just for animals to calm and begin to trust me.”

What do you think ?

The group photos are photoshopped I guess. You can see, that the shadowing and lightning is off on some of them, and especially the sheep fur hasn't been cut out very professional. If you just check the very last image, and take a look at the head of the big horse, you can see, that the lightning is off. Also, light comes from different angles and in different intensity. The animals do not cast shadows at all on each other. Another thing are the "feet", especially those in straw. There's no shadow at all and they aren't pushing the straw down. They are placed above it, which happens if you just copy them in. All this happens, if you cut out something and place it in a different environment with different lightning. You can fix this with photoshop tools, but it’s tricky and you need to know what you are doing. Sorry if I sound like a smart ass, but I do this and other things for a living and I must be completely wrong, if this isn’t the case.

I don't think you're wrong at all. The group shots are totally photoshopped. The animals look like their ever so slightly hovering over the straw. It's really throwing me off. I somewhat know my way around Photoshop, but I am by no means a professional with it, however, I also know that adding in shadows is pretty important. That and fixing the lighting of all the layers to make sure they look like they belong together. Heck, even a quick filter could have helped a bit. As for the floating problem, he should have slightly erased parts of the animals feet to make them look like they're standing in the straw, rather than being lightly placed atop of it.

The group photos are photoshopped I guess. You can see, that the shadowing and lightning is off on some of them, and especially the sheep fur hasn't been cut out very professional. If you just check the very last image, and take a look at the head of the big horse, you can see, that the lightning is off. Also, light comes from different angles and in different intensity. The animals do not cast shadows at all on each other. Another thing are the "feet", especially those in straw. There's no shadow at all and they aren't pushing the straw down. They are placed above it, which happens if you just copy them in. All this happens, if you cut out something and place it in a different environment with different lightning. You can fix this with photoshop tools, but it’s tricky and you need to know what you are doing. Sorry if I sound like a smart ass, but I do this and other things for a living and I must be completely wrong, if this isn’t the case.

I don't think you're wrong at all. The group shots are totally photoshopped. The animals look like their ever so slightly hovering over the straw. It's really throwing me off. I somewhat know my way around Photoshop, but I am by no means a professional with it, however, I also know that adding in shadows is pretty important. That and fixing the lighting of all the layers to make sure they look like they belong together. Heck, even a quick filter could have helped a bit. As for the floating problem, he should have slightly erased parts of the animals feet to make them look like they're standing in the straw, rather than being lightly placed atop of it.